LSE: Economics + Government vs Economics + Philosophy

Given your academic interests, I'd opt for Economics/Politics courses.

First, I would keep in mind that the average LSE course is significantly more competitive than other top universities--there is an average of 15 applicants per place, and for those courses, respectively, that was 18 and 22 in 2009. The grades may be lower but it is not less competitive.

However, you don't need A*s for most universities still. I would aim to get predicted at least one if you can, but it isn't the end of the world if you aren't. You still have a shot at great unis for PPE like York, Durham. If you are more interested in the theoretical side, politics and philosophy is the more suitable course--many politics and economics courses are heavily maths based and focused on the more practical side.

If I were you I would look at Pol/Phil or PPE at York, and Pol/Phil Sheffield as 2 really great choices. LSE might be worth a shot, (I would take it in your situation--presuming you have done math to at least AS Level) but try not to be too disappointed if you don't get in--it is 22 applicants per place. I applied for that course last year and was rejected, predicted A*AA--lacking Maths was part of it though.
Apart from that, you'll just have to look around UCAS really. Good luck.

Hi, I'm just about to apply for one of these courses, having got 3As at AS Level. I'm more interested in theoretical, ideological economics, ie. Marxist and Friedmanist views, and would like to chose the degree which best provides an opportunity to learn more about this. I guess PPE would be best, but my As are not very high so I doubt I'll get an A* - required to take PPE at most presitgious unis.

Hope someone can offer some help

Would you say thats better for an ideological perspective then?

Btw, I'm studying Economics, Politics, Maths and English Combined at A-Level.

I personally don't think that being a home student with a 3A prediction is anywhere near enough to stand a chance of getting into the LSE unless you went to a bad state school, had some extreme extenuating circumstances or fantastic GCSEs. Furthermore these courses are really challenging: I would doubt that someone who isn't capable of getting an A* at A level could cope with the course and complete the first year without either getting a 2:2/ third or failing and dropping out.

From what you've said you don't really want to study Government and Economics/ Philosophy and Economics. What you want to study is a politics course with lots of political economy modules in it. Birmingham from what I can remember allows you to do this, as does Warwick to some degree. The LSE had a top scholar of political economy called Susan Strange based there for years and so given this it should be a good university for political economy. You should check this out yourself though as I never really had any desire to go to the LSE (no offence to anyone there I just grew up in London and didn't want to go to university there).

Therefore with this in mind you should be applying for politics degrees at universities which offer political economy modules.

Economics is a highly mathematical subject and when it's taken as a joint honours at a top university you will study fascinating and fairly technical things like the New Keynesian Model/ Game Theory but not really delve in the different perspectives like Marx/ Friedman/ Keynes/ Smith/ Ricardo/ Hayek/ Polanyi etc and what their ways of thinking meant for economics. The same is pretty much true of single honours economics courses outside of Cambridge unless you decide you want to make an effort to study these areas and take political economy modules as outside options.

So anyway: my advice is look for political economy courses and then try to go for politics degrees which give you the option of studying these modules. I am almost certain that Birmingham and Warwick have politics courses with this as an option and also think that Sheffield and the LSE probably do, but can't say for sure.

I thought economics would be far more like political economy and was in for a real shock when i started doing a degree in it. However I learned to love the subject even though it wasn't what I expected at all. Nevertheless I wish someone had told me this before I applied to university.

Also single honours politics courses are A LOT less competitive to get into, A LOT easier and A LOT less full of hardcore Chinese guys who spend 10 hours a day working on their day off . All this means less stress, less competition and your chance to do a degree at a better university than you would if you applied for economics in a joint honours course.

Good luck!

Thanks for the advice mate. However, I know a friend who got into LSE last year through 3As and a B at ALevel, which is what I am predicted, and he was not one to have come from a deprived background, in terms of education or his family. I guess a well-written personal statement could help?

Also, are you suggesting that I take a Politics course instead, and chose economics modules? As opposed to taking Goverment/Philosophy and Economics, considering I would like to learn of all the different views you listed? ie. Hayek, Marx, Keyens Friedman etc. Sorry I just got slightly confused by the final paragraph.

By the way I must add, I've been predicted an A* in Economics. Perhaps should have mentioned it earlier, just got our college's 'target grades' set at the start of the first year with predicted grades from our teachers. My Economics teacher has predicted I'll get an A*, and As in my other subjects.

Hey

Political economy is a branch of politics, just as say political philosophy and American politics are.

Basically your interest seems to be political economy not economics. This is a very common mistake people make as high school students. So what you should do is apply to universities for politics, not politics and economics/ politics and philosophy.

However the universities you apply to should be ones that have political economy options in their politics degrees. I know that Birmingham and Warwick have these, but also am almost certain that the LSE should too, along with many other top universities.

It depends on what he got in for: I would be very surprised if he got in for Government and Economics unless he had really exceptional GCSE grades or was an international student. A personal statement does make a difference, but the grades are far more important: the personal statement differentiates candidates with equally good grades it doesn't compensate for worse grades.

In political economy modules you learn all about the economic theories and perspectives, but it's not quantitative. If you did a degree in economics as a single subject, or government and economics you would be quite unlikely to cover any perspectives other than the standard neo-liberal and perhaps from New Keynesian/neo-classical/ neo-liberal scholars have, although even then the debates are not always clearly laid out.

You would almost definitely not study any Marx, Polanyi, Smith, Hayek, Friedman etc directly and wouldn't cover the whole background/ socio-economic context of their theories and lives, but just the theories in excruciating mathematical detail. All this is great, but it doesn't sound like what you are interested in. For example I know all about the mathematics behind the Phillips Curve and can derive it and talk about expectations etc, but I didn't actually know anything whatsoever about the Bretton Woods system, the collapse of Keynesianism, the growth of Hayek's popularity, which brought on the Great Moderation and is intimately linked with the Phillips Curve, its development and its demise.

So look for political economy modules in university politics degrees and go for politics degrees which allow you to learn about political economy. If you study economics you will be in for a very big shock because you'll end up studying economic theories in extreme mathematical detail, but won't actually directly cover economists or scholars like Marx/ Hayek/ Keynes/ Friedman. You'll study their theories and the relevance of the theories to the 21st century but you won't study it in terms of Hayek said this, this, this and this and Keynes critiqued it with this.

It will be the New Keynesian Model is: *insert a model with three fairly long equations here*. It breaks the classical dichotomy if prices are assumed to be sticky. This makes the neo-classical ideas about the Solow Residual wrong because of this...

Etc basically none of that will have made any sense to you, but all of this involves Keynesian and Hayekian theories however you never actually mention Keynes or Hayek while studying them.

I'm sorry it's not that clear but I am really really struggling to explain it properly to you as it's just difficult to explain to an A level student who hasn't studied economics at university. It's basically all full of maths and very different to A level/ IB, which I know because I tutor students taking them.

If you want to study the perspectives of economists then political economy is your discipline and a politics degree which allows you to take lots of political economy modules is the thing to go for. Plus you can get into better universities for it than you would do applying for joint honours degrees in economics!

Good luck.